Last night I visited Brislington, my old flat to be precise. Upon my arrival into my former abode, I realised that I’d inherited a most peculiar tripod mounted telescope! The instrument was of unknown origin and struck me as counter-logical as I’d noted that the objective lens was sealed shut with a brass plate. The eye piece was more like a circular electronic monitor. I was however, completely transfixed as I saw how this mystery object worked. I slowly revolved the telescope on its axis and was dumbstruck by the display on the view finder. The telescope took ones mind on a deep space journey, there was a distinct feeling of velocity and visually traversing great expanses of time and space. I had not seen a display of this nature for many years, since an encounter with the fair folk, perhaps my new instrument was a gift from them, or perhaps I’d only perceived a passage in time since that particular memory…

I digress; as my view of the universe shifted and expanded I began to feel awe at the immense detail of what seemed like several hundred galaxies in close proximity to each other. I’d barely begun to mutter something about ‘cluster galaxies’ when the viewfinder rapidly zoomed into one of the glowing spirals to reveal several thousand brilliant shining suns then a sudden focus upon one sun in particular and its orbiting solar system. I quickly gathered that my instrument had not shown me the other side of the universe, it had taken my view from there back to my humble home planet. What a marvelous contraption !

I noted with a sense of profound fascination that there were structures akin to the cells of honeycomb yet as delicate as the silk of spider webs across the entire universe. These structures were so fine that they were impossible to see with the untrained eye. They were there all the same.

I’m trying to convey with words, a phenomenal display witnessed by this soul and finding that my language is failing to adequately describe the events and details as they occurred. If I were to sum the incident up into a clumsy sentence or two I suppose I would have to say: We are not alone out here, we have kindly neighbours who watch us closely. What we see as great distance in time and space is all an illusion and our universe is not a random explosion of eccentric objects, it is a never ending web of interconnected totality;we should not view ourselves as seperate from this.